Our fitters hated the Hydracad produced drawings simply because the design houses that produced them would not take time to make sure their drawings were legible. They hated the nodes on the dwgs because they created unnecessary clutter but the design houses we used said they couldn't do anything about the stacked text or nodes. Needless to say we never used them again. I always felt if design was the main product of your company, shouldn't the designer want it to be the best looking product out there? Apparently it's more about turning a fast buck than producing anything usable. One place had so many disclaimer notes it was just ridiculous. Basically they didn't coordinate with any other discipline, didn't guarantee elevations or routings would work and just put the whole effort upon the installers. Their drawings were good for a permit submittal and then for absorbing oil under the truck, not much else.
We did have one guy who used straight Autocad and Hass, none of our guys ever complained about his designs, it was obvious that he took some pride in what went out on the street with his name on it. It all comes down to what you want people to say about the design you produce. Yeah, ask the fitters, but be ready to get an earful, they usually aren't shy about giving their opinions. Here's an idea. If you're a design house, how about sending out a questionnaire with each design and ask the installers some pointed questions about the ease of following your design, accuracy, legibility, etc. Might get some interesting feedback good, bad or otherwise. Craig L. Prahl, CET Fire Protection Group Mechanical Department CH2MHILL Lockwood Greene 1500 International Drive PO Box 491, Spartanburg, SC 29304-0491 Direct - 864.599.4102 Fax - 864.599.8439 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.lg.com _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
